Recently, it is practice to cover the trunks of bottles or the like with a label of heat-shrinkable tube (hereinafter referred to as a "heat-shrinkable label") in intimate contact therewith for labeling and also for protecting the bottle or the like. However, before reusing the bottle collected after use, the label must be removed as by peeling or cutting. It has heretofore been proposed to remove such labels, for example, by applying hot air or a jet of high-pressure water to the label or by irradiating the label with a laser beam. Especially noteworthy among these methods is the method of thermally cutting (melting and cutting) the heat-shrinkable label by forcing a jet of hot air against the side portion of the bottle (see, for example, Unexamined Japanese Patent Publications SHO No. 58-41092,SHO No. 58-125435, SHO No. 58-193243 and SHO No. 58-216533).
Nevertheless, the new bottles recently developed and lightweight bottles made available at a reduced cost include bottles of altered configuration, and for use with such bottles, there arises a need to prepare a novel hot air nozzle other than those heretofore used. When the label is to be removed by melting with hot air, the orifice end of the nozzle must be positioned at a predetermined distance (within a permissible range) from the bottle surface. If otherwise, that is, if the distance is outside the permissible range, the label will not be properly cut smoothly and is likely to remain uncut locally. Accordingly, every time the shape of the bottles to be handled is altered, it becomes necessary to prepare a different nozzle, hence great inconvenience. The conventional nozzle is therefore not usable universally and is costly.
The present invention has been accomplished to solve the above problem of the prior art.